The Adventures of a Christian Mom, Grandma and cancer surviver!

Sometimes it’s not the big things in life, but the little things that make my day. Today is one of those ‘little things’ days; little things like hearing a Cardinal singing outside, bright sunshine against a new layer of sparkling white snow, seeing a bluejay for the first time this year – little things. The other day we had a hawk in our backyard; I don’t know what kind of hawk, but the very presence of that large a bird in our area was surprising. We live in the city, so it is a surprise, for sure, to see one so near. I tried to get up close enough to photograph it, but my camera decided to fail me just as I snapped the shot, so recording this event just wasn’t to be. I’ve seen three robins in the past few days; in our area robins are a harbinger of Spring and it’s ‘tradition’, of sorts to see who spots one first. Spring is just around the corner (I know…technically it’s already, ‘on-the-calendar’ here) but I mean when we actually see signs of it almost every day; signs like budding bushes – forsythia, flowering crab, or crocus popping out of the ground, hyacinth and the other harbingers: daffodils and narcissus. Spring is my absolute favorite time of year, that ‘fresh’ smell in the air, even on a rainy day.

Another ‘little thing’ for me today was being able to create ‘holes’ in a knitting project. Yes, many times I’ve been able to knit a “Yarn Over” and produce holes, but this one project (which, by the way, is a beginner knitted dishcloth pattern called “Grandma’s Favorite”) was, until today, beyond me! Yes, I was able to knit it up just fine BUT mine didn’t have the cute little row of ‘holes’ that runs just inside the main body of the cloth…this was just frustrating! This is a new pattern for me, as it is knit on the diagonal; it’s a very easy pattern and produces a different effect than straight knitting (ie: squares for “The Ghana Project”). Below I am going to attempt to post the two cloths, both knit using the Yarn Over. On the left is the pattern, knit my way (Continental) that DIDN’T produce the row of holes, and on the right is the slight variation in the twist of the yarn which produced the desired effect (holes around the inside):

Not the best photography, but you get the idea

That’s what’s going on around here today; I did want to add part of a Bible verse that comes to mind about the ‘little things’: Hebrews 13:5 “be content with such things as ye have”… sort of sums up my thoughts today.

Hugs;

Pammie

PS: Here’s a little free quiz that I thought was fun; it ‘nailed me’ right on the ‘accent’ : The Inland North

You may think you speak “Standard English straight out of the dictionary” but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like “Are you from Wisconsin?” or “Are you from Chicago?” Chances are you call carbonated drinks “pop.” Yep, that’s ME – Pure MICHIGAN! Enjoy:

For many of us, Easter is a relaxing time of family gatherings…and then there’s MY family. I had every intention of writing yesterday but was so totally exhausted, I couldn’t. You see, I had volunteered my family to help out with our church’s Easter Breakfast. This normally wouldn’t be a big deal, except that it meant being at church at 8 a.m. and running back & forth making sure that all the items were out for the breakfast, cooking Belgian waffles, helping with any and everything that needed doing. My husband is one ‘mean’ egg scrambler and took to that task like it was his very own. I was sort of a ‘general’ helper; keeping the waffles baked & stocked, running back & forth to the gym to make sure that there was enough of each type of food or coffee/juice/milk to fulfill the needs of all the people who attended. I’d render a good guess at probably somewhere around 280 people came. We truly had a feast going: Belgian waffles with your choice of toppings: whipped cream, warmed strawberry topping, warmed syrup, scrambled eggs, all sorts of egg casseroles, sausages, ham, little ‘piggy in a blanket’ items that were breakfast sausages surrounded by a pancake on a stick (by Jimmy Dean company)…those were great for the little kids, sliced fresh fruits of all kinds, muffins, cinnamon rolls, coffee/milk/juice…I think that about covers it. At 9:50 I had to join the choir for the cantata. I think we finally got home somewhere around 12 noon; most of us promptly took a nap. One and a half hours later I was up working on our Easter dinner: garlic roasted mashed potatoes, spiral sliced glazed ham, gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, tossed salad, rolls and, for dessert: cheese cake in 4 flavors (bought a multi-pack that had 3 slices of 4 different flavors…really yummy!). My oldest son, who’s the Executive Chef, showed up with our grandson and he took over the garlic roasting (I’d never done it before)…the potatoes were ‘to-die-for’ good!). All in all, it was a very tiring, but yummy day and we’ll be having great leftovers tonight, too, I’m sure. (NOTE TO SELF: Next year, don’t stay up until 1 a.m. watching TV, and then expect to be all ‘bright-eyed and bushy tailed the next morning…having only had something like 4 hours sleep!)

Celebrated our oldest son’s 25th birthday on Thursday(Dad to our grandson); he stopped by with my dear grandson and we sang to him, ate cake and watched him open his gifts. Somehow, being 25 doesn’t elicit the total enthusiasm of a younger child, but that’s ok; he wasn’t too thrilled to have turned another year on the calendar, but hey! That’s life, baby!

Our weather here in good old Michigan is FINALLY looking like Spring (my FAVORITE season!); I heard cardinals singing outside yesterday and it got up to 54 degrees and sunny! It even melted all the ‘lake of ice’ we had going on our driveway…yay! The backyard still has quite a bit of snow, but that’s OK…I don’t go out there much, anyway (not until it’s time to fire up the grill, anyway). Pretty soon we will be seeing little signs of green buds on trees and the beginnings of crocus, narcissus, daffodils and hyacinth.

More adorable photos of my grandson, hard at work. He loves playing with this toy, but only if it’s propped on my knees!

That’s all for today, friends-enjoy this lovely Spring weather while you can; (hey, it wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had ice/snow in March before…but I digress…).

This past week was very busy for me, lots of things on the calendar but I think the absolute HIGHLIGHT for me was Saturday when two friends picked me up and drove me to visit another long-time friend, Mary (aka “Momma”). Mary had just celebrated her 73rd birthday and the three of us were giving her a belated but well-wished birthday. We chatted, then all went out (along with her dear husband, Jay) to Red Robin for lunch. That was another first for me; I’ve never been to a Red Robin before and was pleasantly surprised. We had great service and good food, clean surroundings – all-in-all, a great time.

Mary & Dar Dar’s husband Michael & Jay, Mary’s

husband

Recently several new people have ‘found’ my Ghana Project site and have emailed they’ll be sending squares, so I KNOW I’ll be busy for awhile here. It thrills me to see others involved and delights me to see the creativity of them, also. Thank you for your efforts!!!

Our weather has been ‘typical Michigan’…it varies greatly by the day. Today it’s 22 degrees and sunny, very little snow left on the ground. On Saturday when we all made the trip for Mary’s birthday it was in the ‘teens and bone-chillingly windy! My friends who drove said they had 4 inches of snow overnight at their house, while Mary & I neither one had any snow! Oh well…I’m not sad about no snow for us, that’s for sure! I’ve had enough for this winter, with some to spare.

Recently I joined our church’s choir and the next coming weeks will be filled with extra practices for Easter Sunday. I had totally forgotten just how much I enjoy singing in a good choir, that not only sounds good but is musically challenging as well. Our choir directors pay extra attention to little details which make the final product that much better, to the audience as well as honing the singer’s skills. It’s a privilege to be singing with a group of talented individuals and I’m just happy to be there along side of them.

That’s what’s happening around here this week, hope you have a nice, warm SUNNY day wherever you are!

It’s a bright, sunny 30+ degree day here in Michigan. I’m still working on The Ghana Project afghans (like usual) but thought I’d mention a new ‘twist’ to them. A friend of mine, Kay Rogers (member of one of 2 knit groups I belong to AND the person who came up with the idea of her group gifting me with 101 knitted/crocheted squares for the project) also came up with a ‘new twist to an idea’- she thought up making a pocket in one of the squares in which to put a teeny beanie baby toy, for the patients in Ghana, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone. She also gifted me with about 10 beanies, to get me started. Since then I’ve been searching around trying to find more (I wasn’t aware that McDonald’s didn’t provide them any more, as I’m not a fast food afficianado). I managed to locate some on Ebay and then, yesterday, a lovely lady on my Freecycle group donated 103 beanies to me for the Project! Just thought I’d share the whole thing with you, as I’m elated! I also just got an email from the head nurse on the project who is now in Ghana (she retired and is visiting there for several months. She told me the next trip will be in June, so that gives me an idea of the amount of time ahead of me in which to get more afghans completed. I love the idea Kay came up with – the beanies are cute and compact, and if an older child/patient should receive an afghan with pocket & toy, they could share the toy with a younger friend and use the pocket for small things like kleenex, a note, or photo.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings – here are the afghans WITH pockets! (click on photos to enlarge)